Boeing to Cut 737 Max Production by 20%

Boeing said on Friday that it is cutting 737 Max production by 20% as it works to return the beleaguered aircraft to the skies.

“We have decided to temporarily move from a production rate of 52 airplanes per month to 42 airplanes per month starting in mid-April,“ said the company’s CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, in a statement.

The figures Muilenburg referenced are for Boeing’s entire 737 production system but almost all 737s being produced today are 737 Max aircraft.

Boeing had originally planned to increase production of the 737 to 57 aircraft per month come summer.

The move follows the worldwide grounding of the 737 Max fleet following two crashes within a six-month period. The aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, was implicated in the two crashes.

Earlier on Friday Boeing said it has identified a second software issue with the aircraft although it did not identify the problem beyond saying it was unreleated to the MCAS.

The coronavirus is now affecting 104 countries and territories across the globe and many travelers are postponing or cancelling their travel plans as a result.
In some cases, a traveler is holding off because travel to his destination is simply not possible due to quarantine and containment rules; in others, it’s simply a desire not to go somewhere where one might end up with the coronavirus or trapped in a quarantined …

In early May, Warren Buffett divested all of his investment firm’s holdings in the four major U.S. airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry due to the coronavirus crisis. In mid May, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he saw a bumpy road ahead for the airline industry and predicted that a major carrier would not survive 2020 as a result.
It appears Buffett and Calhoun were on …